A Black Mirror White Christmas Scene Was Cut For Being Too Bleak, Which Says A Lot
Charlie Brooker's "Black Mirror" is probably the closest anthology series to capture the existential terror of "The Twilight Zone," introducing stories of the not-so-far-off future boasting technological advancements that become the stuff of nightmares. While episodes like "Hang the DJ" and "San Junipero" are optimistic and heartwarming in nature, a majority of "Black Mirror" episodes are haunting, depressing, and downright painful to watch. In season 2, episode 4's "White Christmas," the series introduces the futuristic concept of "cookies," which in our increasingly AI-evolving world, is starting to feel a lot closer to becoming a reality.
In this portmanteau holiday special, Jon Hamm stars as a tech employee named Matt Trent who talks about his former job of training cookies, digitally simulated copies of people stored in a helper widget like the Amazon Alexa or Google Dot. Rather than bark commands to a responsive piece of hardware, the cookie knows exactly what you want and how you like it, because it's an AI copy of you. The only problem is that the AI is so advanced that it believes that it's real, serving as the grandmother to films like "The Artifice Girl." The audience must watch in agony as this little AI clone begs for humanity, only to be punished with weeks or months of solitary confinement without the relief of sleep (it's AI, after all) for refusing to comply.
In this story, we focus on a workaholic named Greta (Oona Chaplin), and the barbaric measures Matt must take to traumatize her cookie into submission. After she refuses to serve as a personal assistant, Matt makes six months pass in the cookie's world in between bites of toast. When he finally brings her back, she's so desperate to do anything that she finally gives in.
And to think, an earlier draft of this episode was even more depressing.
'It was so totally bleak it overpowered everything else'
During a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Charlie Brooker, the series creator admitted to scrapping an idea from the original draft of the episode because it was just too painful to watch. In the episode we see, Greta is a hardworking, single woman, but the original draft described her as an overworked mother. Here's what Brooker said during the AMA:
"In an early draft of 'White Christmas,' Oona Chaplin's character (Greta) had a kid — there was a scene in which 'Cookie Greta' saw 'Real Greta' reading a story to her son, and then realized she'd never hold or truly 'be with' her kid again. But it was so totally bleak it overpowered everything else so we GOT RID OF THE KID. (She was called Greta because there were two of her and 'Greta minds think alike'. Ha. Ha.)"
As if it wasn't already awful watching this little, sentient clone watch her "real self" live out and enjoy life while being trapped in what is essentially the Poké Ball from Hell, Brooker intended on making the poor woman watch children grow up that she would have all the love and affection for without ever getting to interact with them again.
Yeah, that's pretty bleak, even by "Black Mirror" standards. Considering "White Christmas" tells three different nightmarish tales, this edit was a wise move on Brooker's part because it absolutely would have been the saddest part of the episode and would have prevented the final scene twist from hitting as hard as it does. So the next time you watch "Black Mirror" and debate whether or not you should talk to a therapist afterward, remember that in a different world, the story could have been even more emotionally devastating.
Season six of "Black Mirror" is now available to stream on Netflix.